Spy's suicide adds to Hacking Team scandal in South Korea

A South Korean intelligence officer who used a controversial surveillance system from Italy’s Hacking Team was found dead over the weekend in an apparent suicide as controversy swirls in the country over use of the software.

The officer, identified by local media only as Lim, was a 20-year cyber-security veteran of the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) and ran the department that used the software, according to reports.

He was found dead on Saturday in a car south east of Seoul. Burnt coal was found in the car and an autopsy conducted a day after his death on Saturday found he died of asphyxiation, according to reports. Burning charcoal in a confined space is a relatively common method of committing suicide in South Korea and Japan.